The “New Normal”

Buffalo Dream Catcher

Four weeks on Tuesday from the surgery date and I am almost recovered. Energy levels are up and only a little bit of soreness. So almost to the “New Normal”! Monday will be the first blood work since March, so we are waiting very un-patiently for that test result. This will pretty much define the “New Normal” and give a baseline for the chemo markers after surgery. I will post as soon as we get the results. It is usually two to three days after the blood is taken, since they have to send it out to a lab.

To the left is a photo of the Buffalo Dream Catcher. It is leather with the watercolor ground, then watercolor and colored pencil. Na ner na ner na ner to the guy at the store where I bought the leather, LOL. Watercolor and colored pencil do work pretty well on leather with a little help from the watercolor ground.

We got up at 4:30 AM today to get to the Botanical Gardens at 6:00 AM to get some photos before it was too HOT. Left there at 8:00AM sweating. It is supposed to get up to 107 degrees today. Pretty soon it will be too hot to even get up early to go anywhere (except maybe the mall which has fabulous a/c). This too shall pass! When we are crying about the heat, remind us about the wonderful winters without snow and ice, LOL! We may hibernate for the summer. At least will be staying in the A/C as much as possible.

That is it for now, stay tuned for next weeks blood work results………. it is time for a siesta,……….. it is WAY too hot to type……….Even the parrots are quiet…….the cats are asleep as usual…….. Too hot to draw…….definitely time for a nap.

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Prayer Quilt, Chemo, Charlie Almost Done

Prayer Quilt

This photo was posted on Facebook, but for those of you who don’t FB here is the photo of the Prayer Quilt. It was done by the wonderful Prayers and Squares Quilt Ministry at the Houston Salvation Army. Each knot represents a prayer said for me. It brought tears to my eyes and joy to my heart. Thanks to all of you for the prayers and what a beautiful reminder of prayers said!

Charlie – Hahn’s Macaw
WIP 2

SO this week brings a new result of side effects. I don’t know if I have mentioned it before, but mouth sores are one of the side effects of the chemo. Well, I sidestepped the mouth sores, but have nose sores. The nurses said to use vaseline to keep them soft and not bleeding. So I have used vaseline and Saline Nasal Gel, which work; however, in the last couple of weeks, I have lost a lot of the sensation in my nose……..resulting in random “nose drip”. LOL, who ever thought I would be a snotty nosed ole lady?!?? Now in addition to checking me for charcoal, paint, and/or bird poop, before I leave the house, my family has to tell me to wipe my nose. This has been a good resting week, the nausea has not been as bad, and shock, I gained a couple of pounds this week. Guess, I will have to cut back on the hot fudge sundaes!

Charlie – Almost Done!

Here are a couple of photos on the progress on Charlie. The one in the middle was taken indoors in warm lighting, and the other one was taken outside in the shade and is closer to the real color of the drawing. Well, better go take a nap and get ready for chemo next week……where are my therapy kitties?!?!!?

About through Horsing Around?!?!?!?

We had a lovely vacation at the Bootstrap in Roundtop, Texas. The Bootstrap is a refurbished farmhouse on a few scenic acres of land in Central Tx. We visited with relatives, relaxed, played dominoes and had some good old Texas Cooking. Early each morning a Northern Cardinal tapped on the window. Then the camera hunt began. I chased down the cardinal, meadowlarks, chickadees, kestrels, jackrabbits, horses and anything moving with my camera. Over the next year or so, some of these images will make it into paintings. In the meantime, you are welcome to browse through some of my photos at http://www.flickr.com/photos/53901904@N03/ hope you enjoy!

So the colored pencil drawing is about done, and the next watercolor will also be of horses. Got a good shot of a couple of the yearlings at the Arabian farm tours. Bird lovers, never fear, have several good shots lined up! So stay tuned, you never know what critter will be turning up around here!

Horsin’ Around……….Cont.

Just a quick update, more layers added and more of the burnishing is done…….stay tuned!

Still horsin’ Around!

Arabian

The colored pencil is making progress, the intention is to get familiar with the color palette, then to do a watercolor. In this WIP, you can see several stages of colored pencil work. The layering process, then the burnishing process. It is very time consuming, this piece is 16″x22″, and you can see I am only about halfway through the drawing.

Is the weather in your area crazy? It is here this year. Rain in Arizona, showing up almost weekly….what will be next, snow in Phoenix!?!?!?!? It can’t quite decide whether to be warm or cool. The birdies seem to be loving it, I hear lots of evidence of bird procreation starting out there! The towhees have been chirping like crazy, and I think I hear a tiny little cheep from the nest…the Curved Bill Thrasher was out there singing his head off the other day, the woodpeckers are drumming, and the mockingbirds are starting to sing their best. Looks like spring is trying to get started here.

Stay tuned!

Just Horsin’ Around

Hi! Water has been falling from the sky the last couple of days. Most Arizona residents had to go WAY back in our memory banks to recall the word “rain”.  As usual it is something we always need here in the desert. But I wonder why rain brings out all the wonderful drivers in the state. For some reason, when it rains in Arizona, everyone rushes out to their vehicles to drive somewhere. You would think with the slippery road conditions and flash floods that people would stay home. Not a rain goes by without someone getting caught in a wash. They think, “OH it is not that deep, I should be able to cross”, then the State Patrol is fishing them out of the middle of the flooded wash and they are the main attraction on the 6 o’clock news. This is a time I definitely try to stay home, curl up with a good book, a warm blanket and a cup of hot cocoa. Being the recluse that I am, it is a good thing to have a hubby who reads the paper and watches the news. This last January, he saw that the local Arabian Horse farms were having tours all weekend. SO we loaded up the cameras and went out to see what the tours were all about. These beautiful, graceful creatures with TONS of attitude managed to distract me from my birds for a few days. This WIP is my first effort at drawing an Arabian horse, and hopefully a few paintings will follow.

 

Footnotes

While we are waiting for the Special Guest Blog, thought I would post the beginning of two WIPs! Yes you read that right TWO WIPs! The first one is the watercolor painting of Mingus, a very special conure at the Oasis Bird Sanctuary. This painting will be auctioned off to help raise money for the Oasis. This painting inspired the name of the blog today. Anyone who is familiar with Mingus may already recognize him from the feet in the painting. In case you aren’t familiar with him, more of his features will reveal themselves in the coming days.

The second work is a colored pencil drawing of Red Fronted Macaws. This piece is one for a six week class I am taking with Elliott Everson. See you are never too young to go to school!